THE LINE ISLANDS. 321 



the highest point. It consists of upheaved coral, and has no 

 lagoon. There is a fair anchorage in several places, and great 

 pools of fresh water exist in caverns on the coast. The in- 

 habitants number about 3000, all of whom are professed 

 Christians, and dress in European fashion. The soil is good, 

 but not nearly so fertile as in other parts of the Pacific. 

 Fungus is plentiful, and cocoa-nuts have been introduced into 

 the island from Samoa. The trade is almost entirely in the 

 hands of Messrs. Godeffroy. 



Some 500 miles eastward of Nieue is Palmerston Island, 

 the first discovered in the South Pacific being the San Pablo 

 of Magalhaens. It has no harbour, but there is a good anchor- 

 age in a bight on the western side of the island. The land 

 lies very low, in the form of a coral ring, upon which there 

 are nine or ten islets from 1 to 3 miles long, enclosing a lagoon 

 about 8 miles in diameter. Though many valuable plants 

 grow wild there, little attention has been paid to the group, 

 and a few years ago there were no permanent inhabitants. 

 Damana timber is very plentiful there, and so is a wood called 

 Nangiia, generally found in the Pacific on desert shores, or on 

 the brink of lagoons where its roots are bathed by the tide. 

 Its characteristics are great weight, intense hardness, and close- 

 ness of grain, and it would probably be very valuable as a 

 substitute for boxwood for engravers. I think I have met 

 with Nangiia under another name. Certain samples sent home 

 to England by me from the Pacific had every appearance of 

 making a first-class ' boxwood ' but I regret to say they some- 

 how miscarried en route, and I have not since heard of them. 

 The logs of Nangiia found at Palmerston were about 1 8 inches 

 in diameter. A few turtle-fishers and beche-de-mer curers 

 were the only inhabitants of Palmerston Island for years, 

 and these were merely sojourners for a time. 



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